HOUSTON -- The News2Houston investigation began with a simple question: Who owes the city the most money when it comes to unpaid parking tickets? Two months later, the city is still unable to give an answer. The Investigators did uncover that the city is owed millions of dollars in unpaid tickets that it may never be able to collect.

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Court Director: Tracking Tickets Difficult With Antiquated Computer System

We all hate to see them on our windshields -- parking tickets. But you pay your tickets, so why aren't others? News2Houston asked to see who owes taxpayers the most for unpaid tickets. It got a list of 27 companies owing a total of nearly $2.5 million.

The individual companies owe taxpayers anywhere from $1,100 to $750,000 in unpaid parking tickets. But there's a hitch.

"We don't know if that amount is completely accurate," said Barbara Sudhoff, the municipal court director.

Days after The Investigators got the list, they started asking specific questions. Suddenly the city was not so confident in the accuracy of its own records.

"We'll be glad to review that," Sudhoff said. "That's a clarification we need to make."

For example, the city's list shows Greater Houston Transportation, which owns Yellow Cab and five other cab companies, owes taxpayers nearly $250,000.

"That's not right. You must have stale information. We paid up," said Joe Chernow, with Greater Houston Transportation.

And the company backed up the statement with a letter from Municipal Courts, showing that as of February 2003, the company negotiated and paid a settlement. So News2Houston asked Municipal Court director Barbara Sudhoff about the $200,000 disagreement.

"How accurate are any of the records if there seems to be such a discrepancy just in this one case?" News2Houston's Robert Arnold asked.

"Well, I don't know. I'm sorry, but I don't know the two documents you're holding in your hand," Sudhoff said.

"This is the list you gave us from your office. These are your records. This is correspondence from your office. These are not our records. These are your records," Arnold said.

"Right, and I'm telling you I will research it and provide you an answer," Sudhoff said.

News2Houston is still waiting for the answer. Sudhoff blamed the problem on an antiquated computer system -- the older the information, the less reliable it is.

"Is there any potential for error in any report we provide? Certainly," Sudhoff said.

"Do you expect to get all this $2.4 million back?" Arnold asked.

"No, sir. And the reason why I don't expect it is because a lot of the information is just old," Sudhoff said.

But the problem goes much deeper. The majority that owes the most are rental car and leasing companies. That's because the city sends the ticket to the company that owns the car, not the actual drivers themselves.

"We go after the owner of the car, because that's the law," Sudhoff said.

It's true. And many of the rental car companies are refusing to pay those tickets. But when News2Houston checked with Dallas and San Antonio -- cities that follow the same state laws -- neither has as bad a problem. That's because those cities have worked out agreements with rental and leasing companies to make sure it's the driver who ends up receiving the bill.

Enterprise, which tops the list at more than $760,000 in unpaid tickets, answered the call for payment by suing the city of Houston.

Hertz, which owes nearly $150,000, told News2Houston, "The city has more than enough information to go after the real culprits. But suddenly the city has decided that's not good enough. We do not feel it's Hertz's responsibility to pay these tickets."

So between the questionable record keeping and the blame game, News2Houston took its findings to Houston Mayor Bill White.

"I had the same reaction you probably do," he said.

White blamed the problem on past administrations.

"So much of our record-keeping is being done by hand. That's why I've ordered that we've got to have a new computer system by the end of the year," White said. "That should have been done a long time ago. I agree with your point."

What is the city doing to collect all this money? About a year ago, the city contracted with an outside law firm to go after companies and people who don't pay their tickets. But the city is not allowing the firm to file any lawsuits until it resolves the lawsuit with Enterprise.

Meantime, News2Houston is still waiting for the city give an accurate list of who owes what.

Right now, the city's strongest tool in getting people to pay their unpaid tickets is by booting their car. But a car is only booted when a person has three or more unpaid tickets. And that's provided that the city can actually find these cars. Right now, there are about 15,000 cars in Houston that are boot-eligible.